Real Patient Experience Doesn't Show Up in HCAHPS Scores

No matter how long you study your Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems scores, you don't really know what it's like to be a patient in your hospital until you are one.

Thanks to a vegetable-chopping session gone awry, I recently experienced my first ER visit and, a few days later, my first out-patient surgery. This also marked my first time being a hospital patient in my adult life.

Having reported on healthcare for several years, I've always been on the lookout for the marketing director's touch in whatever hospital I'm in while visiting ill friends and family members.

Things like unclear directional signage, new flatscreen TVs, and internal marketing efforts always stood out to me. But as a patient, I suddenly regarded the care experience through a whole new perspective.

1 comments on "Real Patient Experience Doesn't Show Up in HCAHPS Scores"

Mark Rudolph (11/25/2012 at 12:35 PM)
Thanks for this great piece, Marianne. I hope you and your hand are recovering well! Your point about providers needing a little coaching about keeping eye contact, truly listening, and then responding without using too much jargon is an excellent one. Our hospitalist group, Sound Physicians, a national practice with 500+ physicians is pursuing just that kind of training. We are observing our physicians during patient encounters to offer them the training and feedback that just can't be gleaned from the HCAHPS results. Any chance you'd be interested in doing a piece about our efforts in this regard? I serve as Vice President of Patient Experience for our practice and am really jazzed about these topics.